The board has until the end of July to decide whether ratepayers should cover the estimated $1.5-billion cost of building the link, which will bring Labrador hydro to market.

Financial statements included in the filing show that NSP Maritime Link will make a total of $994.3 million in profit over a 35-year period through its investment in the project.

Annual net income will peak at $53.8 million in 2017, when the project becomes operational. The amount will drop over time to a low of $2.5 million in 2051. That is the final year of Emera’s joint venture with Nalcor Energy, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Crown-owned utility, on the $7.7-billion Muskrat Falls hydroelectric development.

The level of profit is based on the terms of a federal loan guarantee that said the project must be financed through a 70-30 debt-equity ratio.

The Emera holding company said in the filing that its projections are based on a 9.10 per cent return on equity from 2011 to 2013. The company doesn’t give a percentage after that but said the return would be based on a formula tied to long-term utility bond yields from 2014 to 2018.

“For the years subsequent to the first full year of operation, NSP Maritime Link will seek a reasonable rate of return on equity with the (board) based upon market conditions at the time,” the 150-page application said.

Customer representatives and opposition politicians said the project’s financials are one of many parts of the proposal they plan to scrutinize in the coming months.

“I would think there will be a very vigorous and robust discussion of the financials,” consumer advocate John Merrick said. “There will be a robust testing of the legitimacy of their claim for profits.”

Progressive Conservative Leader Jamie Baillie said the application, which includes more than 2,000 pages of supporting documents, reinforces the need for an independent cost-benefit analysis to help protect ratepayers.

“Emera wants the project. They’re going to make money on it. People get that,” Baillie said. “Whether it’s right for Nova Scotia has yet to be determined.”

Liberal energy critic Andrew Younger said his party doesn’t want to see some details of Emera’s filing kept secret.

A seven-page filing about possible alternatives to the link were heavily redacted to remove fuel price information.

“The NDP and Emera both promised that the public would get to see the comparisons and information and understand whether it’s the best deal or not,” Younger said. “It will be impossible for Nova Scotians to know without seeing that information.”

Both parties said they will be intervening in the upcoming hearing.

Merrick said his initial concern is that NSP Maritime Link may be asking for approvals that are too broad and which could pose a financial risk to ratepayers.

“They’re asking the board to approve everything, large parts of this transaction,” he said. “The reason they want to get the board to sign off on a lot of this is because later down the road, then they will be able to argue that they’ve passed the prudency test.”

The Emera holding company is asking the board to approve the link project and 15 agreements that are part of Emera’s deal with Nalcor.

The consumer advocate said he will also have questions about why NSP Maritime Link wants the project excluded from Nova Scotia Power’s code of conduct governing affiliate transactions.

Emera, Nova Scotia Power’s parent company, is covering 20 per cent of the project’s cost and will receive 20 per cent of the electricity from the lower Churchill River in return.

If ratepayers fund the link, the province would get Emera’s share of the electricity at a fixed price for 35 years. That would be enough to meet eight to 10 per cent of the province’s annual supply, or the output of one coal-fired plant.

There would also be an option to buy more hydro power from Labrador or other sources at market prices.

Emera has said the cable project will add 0.95 per cent to power bills over a five-year period, starting in 2018.

That is an extra $1.50 a month on the average household’s power bill in each of the link’s first five years of operation, the project’s developer said.

For the remainder of the 35 years, the impact would be to stabilize or help reduce rates, Emera said.

But officials can’t say whether Nova Scotia Power will be seeking rate hikes of its own.